“At 13, she had watched her dad’s throat gurgle. He stopped breathing. She didn’t have to watch, but she sat straight up, wiped her face, and squeezed his hand. ‘You can go now. It’s okay.’ Even with that reasoning, I still struggled with it.”
‘My 15-year-old asked, ‘Mom, can I get a tattoo?’ I let her and no, I don’t care what anybody has to say about it.’: Mom says daughter ‘earned’ tattoo, ‘She showed me what surviving looks like’
As A Foster Dad, I Need To Better Understand POC Struggles
“This is not a political issue. It’s personal. You see, I have three Ahmauds who sleep under my roof every night.”
‘Why are my black friends convinced it’s about race? I have been called a hero, an idiot, and an attention whore.’: Ex-Pastor goes viral carrying a TV while running for Ahmaud Arbery
“I am the crazy white guy who carried a TV while running. Looking suspicious didn’t get me followed with shotguns.”
‘She was a ticking time bomb. ’Was this my fault? It could be the last time we’d see her.’: 4-month-old with Williams Syndrome survives open heart surgery, ‘She is our perfect daughter’
“I still had the ‘it won’t happen to me’ mentality. When I saw the cardiologist’s number pop up on the phone, I started sweating. For 10 hours, my husband and I sat in the parking garage of the hospital, crying.”
‘I’ve watched my dad’s eyes glaze over as he called forth a lifetime of memories that didn’t require a photo to enjoy.’: Woman warns, ‘don’t miss the magic of the moment’
“The truth is, not all of the stories were wholesome or kind. They weren’t all politically correct or even decent but they were real.”
‘This is not just about me. HIS BABY DIED, TOO.’ They dismiss or ignore his grief.’: Woman reminds us dads also need support after losing child, ‘He, too, needs to heal’
“Martin lost the opportunity to teach Sage how to lace a glove or how to properly stand at home plate. Everything he could have done with Sage, or for Sage. He lost all of that.”
‘My body failed me. Betrayed me in the worst way. I wanted it to be a mistake.’: Woman’s first pregnancy results in miscarriage, ‘I’m not going to give up on becoming a mom’
“My husband and I needed to be together, but not at home. Not at the home where we were going to raise our first child together. Where we had the room picked out for the nursery. The home that had every ultrasound image plastered on the fridge.”
‘The nurse said, ‘This poor baby just needs something to eat!’ I knew there was something else going on.’: Woman loses preemie daughter to infection, ‘We have continued to celebrate our girl’
“They had to poke her AGAIN for more blood because they must have mixed up her blood with someone else’s. ‘That couldn’t have been hers,’ the doctor said, ‘she’s not that sick.’ The blood tests came back with the same terrifying results. Our girl was very sick.”
‘His heart kept stopping. It was as though I was adrift at sea, waiting for a life vest.’: Mom births baby with Down syndrome who has open heart surgery, ‘I’ll spend the rest of my life shouting his worth from the rooftops’
“The first 36 hours of my son’s life were some of the worst of mine. I wanted to turn back the clock and return back to my normal life. In that hospital room, it felt as though nothing would ever feel normal again.”
‘There’s no way to prove he didn’t know you didn’t want it.’ Fighting back tears, I said, ‘I was asleep.’: Sexual assault survivor represses memory for 3 years. ‘If this is what I needed to go through to learn all of this, then I am thankful’
“Every so often, the officer would say, ‘It doesn’t seem like you knew him really well.’ I was getting so frustrated. Does it matter? Would that change things?”
’I woke up hanging from my seat belt. ‘Can you move your legs?’ They hung like dead meat.’: Woman paralyzed from car accident, ‘My mind, soul, and spirit remained untouched’
“My last thought before losing consciousness was that I had killed the car full of people, and those people were my family.”
‘Come on,’ we whispered, willing life into our soundless baby. We took lessons on bringing him home to die.’: Woman loses son to sepsis, ‘Grief taught me the enormity of love’
“First came silence, then fear. We watched helplessly as the nurse administered oxygen. We attempted to rock our baby into heaven. But life had another plan. Now I understand why it’s called The Miracle of Life.”
‘I got the call and instantly threw up. ‘Do you know how sick you are?’ We cried together.’: Young woman with Cystic fibrosis gives tribute to donor, ‘I am forever grateful for the second chance at life’
“I steadily declined. The doctor said, ‘Kenzie, there is what we call a ‘transplant window.’ I need to start the process now before it is too late. My family held hands around my bed. Being rolled away was the hardest part.”
‘What if my body becomes toxic?’ I didn’t trust my ability to carry a life. For so long, I felt broken.’: Woman struggles with anxiety after miscarriages, ‘We feel so lucky to have our rainbow baby’
“I spent the first two weeks of the pregnancy in tears over the fear of miscarrying for the third time. I had some bleeding and it completely crippled me. I was up all night, in tears over the thought of something terrible happening. I felt like my body didn’t work or that, somehow, I was broken.”
‘Unless you have a sick kid, you don’t understand. I wish I only had normal fears. I know any breath could be her last.’: Mom of CHD baby worries during Covid 19, ‘Your fears for your child’s health are NOT bigger than my fears.’
“Her appointment was flat out canceled, and her developmental checks were rescheduled and then canceled. For a normal child, that would be no big deal. For a child who just had major surgery that did not fix everything, those appointments are everything. I wish I could be ignorant like you.”
‘I’m on the floor, asking a friend to break isolation, putting her kids in danger, to come get the lentils from my fridge.’: Woman suffers from ARFID eating disorder
“It means you are happy to eat as many chicken nuggets as your belly can contain, but they must be from Wendy’s, they must be room temperature, and they must be dipped in a 50/50 mixture of ketchup and bbq sauce. If anything in that ritual is changed, then you cannot eat a single bite. Not will not, can not. You would literally rather starve to death then let that food pass over your lips.”
‘We see abnormalities.’ An exciting morning turned into a nightmare. I silently prayed.’: Baby diagnosed with Thanatophoric Dysplasia, ‘We wanted to enjoy the time with our baby in my womb’
“Lethal. No cure. The geneticist tried to make us feel better by telling us it was not our fault, it wasn’t anything we had done, or could have done to prevent this. Of course, that didn’t make us feel better.”
‘Your birth daughter would like to meet you.’ I stood in disbelief. I was terrified she wouldn’t love me.’: Woman overcomes fear, ‘I wasted too many sleepless nights’
“There was the answer I had been praying for. ‘Is this Raquel?’ It left me frozen.”
‘My daughter was trying to break everything. She’s NEVER like that. We’re all feeling the burn.’: Mom sets new ground rules during quarantine, ‘While nothing is perfect, perfection is not what I am going for’
“My daughter had been running away from me for the last 15 minutes. My son was screaming to get my attention. Somebody rang the doorbell. My work call was about to start in 10 minutes and my husband was already on a work call. It has been some version of this every day.”
‘I dated a guy who said, ‘You look so good when you lose weight. Otherwise, I feel like cheating.’: Woman urges us to love our bodies. ‘Kick him to the curb and embrace your curves’
“I had an ex who held me from behind and said, ‘You look so thin!’ Like it was an amazing compliment. This guy was not a fitness fanatic. He never worked out, was extremely unhealthy, and triple my size.”
‘I could’ve delivered a dead baby. It could’ve been worse.’ STOP. Stop comparing tragedies.’: Woman faces miscarriage, divorce, and adoption scam, ‘I wouldn’t change a thing’
“Staying out till 2 a.m. is what he did. Multiple times a week. Which left me home alone. At first it didn’t really bother me. I would have a glass of wine, watch my favorite crime show or a documentary he’d hate, and head to bed by 10 p.m. But after a while it became lonely. And loneliness in a marriage is a recipe for disaster.”
‘Driving up to the school, I was overcome with emotions. It’s finally over. What now?’: Mom reminds us to ‘salute our children for their hard work. This hasn’t been easy on them either’
“Strangely enough, I felt a bit of grief this thing we had between the two of us was gone. I looked at my sweet, tender-hearted daughter and I felt so very proud of her. She had been through so much. She did it.”
‘I watched as my mom was zipped up in a body bag and carried away. This is the end of us.’: Woman loses mom to Stage 4 colon cancer, ‘My mom would be angry if I didn’t make a beautiful life for myself’
“Instead of celebrating with pizza and cake on my 17th birthday, we sat in the hospital. My addict brother would steal my mom’s medication. A switch flipped in my brain. Suddenly, my wants and needs didn’t matter.”
‘I took my baby home to die. ‘There’s nothing more we can do.’ We were on our own.’: Single mom loses son to epilepsy, hydrocephaly, ‘I am brokenhearted that he’s not with me, but I am at peace’
“His body was saying, ‘This is too much. I can’t fight anymore.’”
‘I don’t want to deliver my baby in a car!’ I started to bawl. My baby’s foot was hanging out of my cervix.’: Woman gives birth to baby at 22 weeks, ‘I had no idea they saved tiny babies like mine’
“I felt fluid run down my leg. I panicked, bawling because I didn’t know what was happening. I was only 22 weeks and 2 days. The doctor gave me two options: He could be intubated or just lay on my chest for comfort care. I told her to try everything to save my baby.”